Patty LaNoue Stearns

Patty LaNoue Stearns (1950- ) grew up outside Detroit in Allen Park, Michigan, in the shadow of the giant Uniroyal Tire on I-94. She wrote and illustrated her first newspaper at the age of nine and distributed it to her fourth grade friends at Arno Elementary. Nine years later in 1968, she was working full time at the Detroit Free Press, spending mornings as a fashion assistant, afternoons editing stock reports and evenings studying at the University of Detroit.

Since then her career has taken her around the world, inside the homes of the rich and famous and nose to nose with race-car drivers, celebrities and chefs. She worked as an editor and writer for Ward's Auto World magazine, managing editor of the edgy city magazine, Detroit Monthly, and did a second stint at the Detroit Free Press as a feature writer, food columnist and restaurant critic, during which time she studied in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu in its centennial year and was lead contributor to the 1998 Detroit Free Press Dining Guide.

After moving to Traverse City, Michigan, Stearns produced two foodie books and wrote a restaurant column for the Traverse City Record-Eagle. She later continued her career as senior editor of Traverse, Northern Michigan's magazine. After 15 years, she returned to the Detroit area to revel in the city's long-awaited renaissance.

As a freelance writer, Stearns has written thousands of stories for newspapers and magazines around the country. She and her husband Joe live in a northern suburb of Detroit with their beloved cat, Brody.